Your question, of course, invokes something we've not seen for a long time in any Gundam series: design innovation. I miss the inspiration and -dare I say it- diversity in design styles of the Zeta and Double-Zeta eras.

As far as sensors and their placement, I liked the main and backup sensors we saw on the Z-era suits and MAs. With so many fiddly-bits it's hard to get a good 360 degree view. I'm a big fan of the Guyver concept: multiple, independently-controlled eyes on the head section. This is used to great effect in "Bokurano." When all its head-sensors finish scanning and zero in on the target, Zearth is a pretty scary-looking machine. I'd like to design a Zaku-type suit with this compound-eye feature - it would be very unnerving.

The rationale for multiple sensors goes like this: The more eyes you have, the less likely it is for them all to get put out in a fight. Cockpit-wise, the concentration of sensors on a single target could result in a highly-enhanced "target view" distinctly demarcated from the 360 peripheral vision.

Regarding eyeballs on Gundams, I had a sick thought late last night: An alternate, magictech Gundam universe a la Demonbane. In this scenario, eyes like those of the mortar headds would be acceptable. It would also just be cool to see a fresh take on the Gundam design ethos that this scenario would bring.

Good points. I'll have to try sketching a few MSs with multiple, converging eyes. It sounds like a fun experiment. Good idea, Newton!

Also, how tickled was I that you mentioned Demonbane?!? That is my favorite mecha design venue of... hell, practically of this millennium!

As for innovation in Gundam, yeah, it has been kinda lacking of late -- particularly the TV series. V-Gundam wasn't much of an offender, but then G and W and X and Seed and Seed Destiny have all been terribly bland and disappointing, designwise.

The most innovative designs have been scattered around. The Turn-A Gundam and its wacky co-stars may not have been aesthetically pleasing, but they were profoundly different. For that, I value it. Also, I believe the Turn-A laid the groundwork for the Astray, which is one of the finest Gundam designs, well, ever. The same designers worked on G-Unit, which had remarkably good designs.

The other really innovative Gundam work is Advance of Zeta... Fujioka has really gone out of his way to make new, distinctive designs, but I often feel that he goes a little TOO far. His designs partically don't even seem like Mobile Suits at all. (Which is saying a lot, given how loopy Zeta's MSs got!)

I miss seeing Kazumi Fujita work on Gundam. He remains my favorite mecha designer. Left to his own devices, his designs are ker-rayyyy-zee!

Hmmm. The more I think about it, Newton, the more I like your "multi-eye" sensor idea!

I like Grebo's idea about a weapon to take out newtypes. I don't know about you guys, but I sometimes get tired of watching some newtype ace pilot taking out fifty or so mobile suits without getting a single scratch. So how 'bout;

1. A weapon, maybe missiles or beam weapon, that causes a bio-feedback or overload on psychommu systems.

2. Anti-psychommu emmiter that will prevent a newtype from sensing the presence of other mobile suits. Kinda like ECM but just against psychommu waves.

Something to give the average joe some kind of fighting chance. I'd just like to see those newtypes taken down a peg or two.

Earlier in this thread, some one mentioned the idea of a 'psychomu bomb' and how it would probably just amount to the equivelent of a nuke.
I think the idea may have some merit if you rethink the idea just a bit.

Make this weapon somewhat analogous to a nuetron bomb. Which foregoes raw structural damage for mere lethality. Essentially, it only kills the people but leaves the structures and equipment in tact, albeit radioactive.

The psychomu-bomb, would propgate on a physchic wave and damage or destroy all psyche's in it's radius, but have relatively little effect otherwise. The people caught in the blast would have their minds wiped, but their bodies would remain behind-

Close effects would include outright death, permanant psychosis, long-term memory loss or total amnesia, and conversion to a veggitative state.-

Further out from the epicenter, people's psyches get progressively less screwed up- the overall effect is a lessening of the will, cleaning of the slate if you will.

The survivors become extremely vulnerable to sugestion and their will to fight back or oppose morally dubious suggestion is eradicated or extremely weakend.

In short- those caught in the blast radius are renered docile, complacent, and easy to control.

New-Types, being so sensitive and all, might be particularly vulnerable.

A power hungry government would leap at the chance to utilize this device.

Secure the forced loyalty of it's populace-use it once or twice then threaten to use it again if the people don't follow the rules.
Decimate it's opponent's will to fight by turning their soldiers into mindless drones, no longer capable of resistance.

Convert hordes of civilians into ready made slaves. So called 'righteous' governments would only stoop to doing this to the enemy's poplation. Groups like the Titans wouldn't care who they did it to aslong as it served their own ends.

Like any experimental weapon, it wouldn't be perfect- at further ranges, people who actually had very stong wills might be able to resist it effect.
Some materials or technology might act as a sheild. Perhaps those who are not killed outright might be able to heal back the damage and regain their minds over time. No weapon is perfect. But their are some ugly possibilities beyond the simple 'oh my god, it's a nuke!' bigger gun syndrome.

What if this devise could be rendered on a tactical scale rather than strategic one?- 500 lb psycho-bomb- coming up- maybe even pscho-grenades- individual bullets are pushing it though.

Evil game-master interlude-printed below.

Of course, what the developer's fail to realize about their 'ultimate weapon' is that it actually turns it's victims into flesh eating zombies-or something akin to the Reaver's from Firefly. Overly aggressive to the extreme.

Hmm Gundam and Zombies... probably wouldn't work, but it might be interesting if done right. A lonely few, immune to the bomb, or sheilded at random, trapped in a colony full of lumbering or raging zombies- take your pick- Their only escape, the space-port on the far end.

OK, a mobile suit would render you pretty much involnerable to zombies, but if it was your home colony, could you indescrimantly chrush and blast your freinds, family, and country-men, if it was even minutely possible to reverse the effects and return them to normal later?

Definately have to think thru the details but it might make for a good one-shot RPG.

Well, I actually was talking about a Minovski Bomb, not a Psycho-bomb... BUT! The idea of the Psycho-Bomb is GREAT!

In fact, all of a sudden there are a lot of good ideas here.

I don't buy the zombies idea, though. However, some kind of unforseen side-effect would be very cool.

Oh! Perhaps some of the victims become Psycho-Vampires?!? Yeahhhhhh, I like that idea -- a small percentage of those caught in the blast have their Newtype powers negated or altered, but they become leeches, feeding off the abilities of other Newtypes.

I've become very fond of running RPGs online, via message boards. Never thought I would, but I found I really dig it. I used www.rpol.net to run a StarBlade Battalion Mekton game (using Virtual-On mecha) for a year or so, but then I got a girlfriend and it fizzled. Heh. She's outta the picture now, so I must get back to RPG goodness.

What do you guys think? Im looking to try and logically extrapolate from what we've already seen. For example:

"VSBF"
A fairly obvious and logical development would be Variable Speed Beam Funnels. Simply load a classic Funnel (or, more likely, a Bit) with a VSBR.

"Beam Missiles"
These would be standard Missiles (or hell, they could even be Newtype-guided Funnel Missiles) which, instead of packing an orhotodox explosive warhead, are loaded with a single-shot beam weapon. The missile hits the target and the beam weapon goes off at point-blank range. This weapon would pack the armor-defeating powers of a beam weapon but would have the projectile weapon advantage of not being stopped by an I-Field.

"I-Field Disruptor"
Some kind of grenade or shell equipped with Minovsky field sensors. When the disruptor comes in contact with an I-Field, it cancels it out.

"Psycho Fantasma"
A stealth cloaking system which renders an MS literally invisible -- to the human eye, at least. It requires a Psychommu system to work; it would be like the power of the old pulp superhero The Shadow. "The power to cloud men's minds so they cannot see him."

"Beam Claws"
A small Beam Saber is housed in a Mobile Suit's fingertips; the MS would effectively have beam fingernails. Could also be done like Wolverine's claws.

What ideas do you guys have on the subject?

I like the idea of beam missiles to do a two-tiered offense, but I get the feeling that their interception rate is a lot higher.

Disposable I-field generators, similar to reactive armor. have enough energy to fend of a few beam weapon shots,but enough to give a significant edge in a fight.

I almost see an anti-psychomu force in the same manner of the Titans who would replicate psychomu energy to give massive migraines (e.g. psi-bombs) to counter New Types. (already posted) Perhaps an LP Puru brain hardwired to emit psycho-energy when it's woken up? - gah, and it gets implanted into a Haro unit. The horror.

As New Types get more prevalent and the bit/funnel/incom systems get cheaper to produce, I could see the use of ship-based incom or bit weaponry to provide true 360-degree AAA (er, AMS I guess) spreads.

Safer pilot control systems. The big thing about Gundam is of course the vacsuit in the 360 seat (the name escapes me). In Char's Counterattack, we saw the advent of the multi-use crashbag. I can see and extension of the system for high level pilots become an internally filled crash gel (ala Neon Genesis Evangelion, but more for impact absorption rather than as an interface medium) This could be used for leak sealant (no more Camille Vidan stars in your eyes from exposure to vacuum), drug interface (uppers, downers, artificial New Type emulation drugs, controls, etc.), Medical, pilot interface matrix, etc.

As for the ultimate in offensive weapons for the spacenoids, it'd have to be the New Type piloted armored asteroid. Get a big fat nickel-iron asteroid, load it with a small fleet of bits, I-field generators, fusion engines to give a good high %C velocity, load it with New Types to run the defensive and offensive systems, and point it towards Earth.

For propulsion, it'd have to be hyper-efficient systems which would allow mobile suits to dive in and out of the atmosphere. I know one of the staples of Gundam is death by re-entry, but it'd be nice to see a larger mobile armor with transatmospheric capability.

I forwarded a couple of Zaku concepts to Tachyon (Thanks, bro!). I'm not sure where they'll be put, but they've been submitted for y'all's approval.

Speaking of Advance of Zeta, where can a brutha score these publications? Have any been compiled into a big volume, or are they little supplements? I've been grabbing as much as I can off the Net, but there are a couple of pictures I've gotta have in my hot little hands! Actually, I want 'em all, but there's one I found of a Rick Dias Stutzer variant that I've gotta have. I call it the Big Red Monster. It's an upgraded Stutzer with Char colors, and this thing on its back that looks like a proto-Penelope unit.

I personally see the beam technologies going by the wayside. Too much beam-on-beam action, not enough getting the job done, if you know what I mean. Perhaps the UC universe will mirror our own and take a step back on the technology ladder.

Wellllll... Beams seem to be one of the big staples of Gundam. Lose them and you're not really dealing with Gundam anymore. Besides, with the advent of VSBRs and Beam Bazookas (which have the capability to punch through Beam Shields) its not that much of an issue. Unless you're talking about I-Fields... which ARE pretty compact by the time of Crossbone Gundam and/or Gaia Gear...